Giving Thanks

1. Our county and other counties near us are going green next Friday! Time will tell what exactly life will be like in the green phase (when will our church reopen? when will Knoebels open? when will the kids be allowed to play on playground equipment?), but most businesses will be reopening, which is a very good thing for the business owners and overall economy. You'd think it would be a very good thing for the employees also, but the government's extra $600 a week has created a myriad of problems. Entering the green phase also means Yvonne's family can come up to visit us next weekend for Andrew's birthday! My kids are very excited about seeing their cousins!

2. We went on a FIELD TRIP yesterday! Woohoo! I never dreamt that government intervention might make that impossible for three months, but we were very glad to go to Reptiland yesterday. Hopefully we'll be able to go on some more field trips over the next three months. I'm also thankful I was able to see my friend, Cheri, yesterday for the first time since December.

3. We live in a small development, but thankfully children live in most of the homes. One family moved out during the lockdown. They didn't use a realtor to sell their home. The family that moved out had one preschool boy (whom Oliver played with), and the family that moved in has a nine-year-old girl and a twelve-year-old boy. After Nadia turns 12 (in 18 days), there will be 5 twelve-year-olds in our development! Most of the children are between the ages of 7-14. The family that has an inground pool also has a nice slip and slide, hoverboard, and mini Segway. Oliver has enjoyed using all of the above. He asked for a hoverboard for his birthday after he found out they are much cheaper than a mini Segway. I'm very thankful the kids have other kids to play with and that Camden's family has allowed all three of our kids to swim in their heated pool. In the picture below Nadia and Addi (who just turned 10 three days ago) were making business cards to advertise their pet sitting and baby sitting business. We will be pet sitting Evanna's two gerbils this month while she's on vacation in Montana with her mom.

4. Nadia's friend, Grace, came over for a sleepover last weekend.

5. Nadia is going to a youth group meeting IN PERSON tomorrow night for the first time in almost three months. Tomorrow *should* be our last Sunday of church taking place in our family room staring at our TV. We plan to begin attending church services IN PERSON at FBC on June 14.

6. Shawn came home from the hospital. He was hospitalized for three weeks following having his appendix removed. We're still praying for him. 

7. We've picked up meals at the public school four times so far. These meals have really increased the amount of containers going in the garbage and recycling bin. We threw away one PBJ sandwich, but otherwise everything has been consumed. The kids have eaten almost everything. None of us like broccoli, but the guinea pigs gladly gobbled that up. I've cut back how much milk, bread, and fresh fruit I am buying because of what we're receiving at the school. This Wednesday one of the things we received was a bag of Starbucks coffee. We shared that with Paul's mom and brother because none of us drink coffee. In the summer the kids have participated in the Kid's Café that the Methodist church usually puts on in our town's park five days a week when school isn't in session. Because of social distancing, they won't be offering the program in the way they usually do but instead will be offering a "to go" curbside lunch program two days a week. We'll give it a whirl once that begins on July 1 to see if the kids want to pick up meals there or not this summer. 

8. Millie was able to buy a box of jumbo shells for us. Thanks, Milllie! That was something I hadn't been able to purchase at Walmart or Weis around here. I'm planning to make stuffed shells next week.

9. The library we usually use reopened for curbside service this week. There have been serious glitches to this new system, which I didn't anticipate because they've had a way to place holds online for years. I had been waiting all week for the books I requested on Monday to be ready for me to pickup. The items were on the shelves and no one else had requested them, but for some unknown reason some of them weren't pulled from the shelves until today. I was at the library on Monday, but some things that came in that day which they didn't give to me were checked out to me that day. In other words some things I picked up today are due in two days even though they always let you have things for at least seven days. Unfortunately, the same thing happened today!!! I got home and checked my account versus what was in the bag they gave me, and there are three books listed in my account as being checked out to me that they didn't actually give me. Two of the books were for Nadia and are ones that they give you 14 days to read, but the book for me is one that you can only check out for seven days. It's frustrating, but at least the library is open and we did get some books and DVDs. Hopefully in time they will work out the bugs to this system. If they don't, we will try to use the library as sparingly as possible this summer as I don't want to start driving there multiple times a week given the library is 20 minutes from our house.

Nadia really enjoyed the book I got for her on Monday (Absolutely Almost), so I got her another book by the same author today. It's very easy to tell when she loves a book because she finishes it MUCH, much faster. Nadia is very thankful the libraries have reopened as she isn't a fan of reading on the Kindle.

10. Speaking of books, the kids and I are thankful for free audiobooks! We finished our 600th chapter book on May 6, and as of June 6 we are in the middle of Rufus M, which will be our 615th book, and two of the fifteen books were each over 500 pages long! The series we are enjoying right now is the Mysterious Benedict Society. We've listened to the prequel and the first book so far. We're in line on Overdrive for books two and three, and I'm planning to pay around $8 for the fourth book on Audible because I can't find a way to listen to that one for free. I figure paying $8 for something that we'll enjoy for 12 hours is a reasonable use of money.

11. The kids love water balloons, and I'm thankful for the Bunch O Balloons that Grandma and Pop Pop gave the kids recently. It is SO much easier than filling and typing balloons one by one. The kids are also very thankful I included freeze pops in my Walmart grocery order on Monday. Little things like a water balloon and a freeze pop can put a smile on a child's face!

12. After the stress of owning two rabbits, I'm thankful for three guinea pigs that bring enjoyment to the kids (mostly Nadia) without stress. Since Nadia has had extra time on her hands recently, she's been setting the guinea pigs up for photo shoots by having them wear doll clothing or using props like old cell phones and plastic sun glasses. 

13. I unfortunately had gained back some of the weight I lost last year. I really hope I do a better job keeping it off this time!!!!! Anyhow the good news is that over the past couple of weeks I've lost 5 pounds. I'm on a plateau right now, but hopefully I'll see some progress again n the near future. I'm hoping to reach my goal by the end of July. At least I'm going in the right direction at the moment....

Field Trip Friday!!!

When I was a middle school teacher in the early 90's, I took my students on an average of one field trip per month, which was definitely more than most teachers. I typically take my three children on far more than one field trip per month. We don't usually go on many field trips in January and February, but we typically go on a LOT of field trips in April and May. Not counting the two days we went skiing in January and February, today was our fourth field trip in 2020. I had scheduled MANY field trips from the middle of March through the end of May that were all cancelled or postponed. The four field trips we've taken thus far this year have been to Gettysburg National Military Park, the Pennsylvania Military Museum, Reptiland, and a theatre production in Wilkes Barre plus aquarium in Scranton. 

Today we went to Reptiland, which is only 8 minutes from our house. The kids can get into Reptiland once a year for free through our PBS membership. I paid for my admission plus paid $6 for three feeding sticks for the budgies and $1 for food for the emus. My friend, Cheri, joined us. I hadn't seen her since December so that was greatly appreciated. She hadn't been to Reptiland since she was a teenager, and she's in her early 60's. The weather forecast showed a 55% chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. Cheri and I were texting each other around noon trying to decide whether to postpone our trip to next week. Reptiland opened today after being closed for almost three months. I asked Ian and Nadia if they wanted to go today or reschedule the trip for next week. Ian is typically a child who wants to stay home. He's also by far the most indecisive of my three. When given a choice, he is most apt to say "I don't know." That didn't happen today. He immediately responded he wanted to go today. He didn't want to wait until next week. I guess after being home for almost three months (our last field trip was March 8), he was very ready to be out and about! It sprinkled for maybe 30 seconds during our visit there. We visited the dinosaurs first, then saw a 45 minute show on venomous reptiles that concluded with the kids touching a milk snake (which is not venomous but is sometimes confused with the copperhead that is venomous). After the show we fed the budgies. Usually Nadia wants to feed those birds for a VERY long time, but because we were wearing masks she didn't last as long. After we fed the emus and visited the Komodo dragon, we then walked around to see the various reptiles contained inside and outside. I have done better the last several days of taking at least one picture a day, but today I took far more than one picture. I'm not a fan of taking pictures with masks on because I love taking pictures of SMILES, but hopefully wearing masks will not be a requirement for years to come and this will be a record of what life was like in 2020.

While we were at Reptiland I did a quick search on my phone and was happy to learn that our county and two other counties near us will be moving to the green phase on June 12. Yahoo! I am very happy for all the business owners who will finally be allowed to reopen their businesses after being closed for three months. Now to find out if Knoebels will actually be allowed to open this summer as both counties they are located in are going green next Friday. I don't have any field trips scheduled for June or July, but two local field trips I'm hoping to take the kids to this month or next month are Packwood House and Eckley Miner's Village. We've never been to either site before. Both are located in counties that are going green next Friday so hopefully they will reopen sometime this month. We had planned to visit Wendy's family in Chicago in April and Yvonne's family in Maryland in May, but both trips were cancelled. The kids are also excited that entering the green phase means they can see some of their cousins next weekend. We are looking forward to celebrating Andrew's birthday when they come up to our house on the 13th! 

Extra Time

Right now I have more free time than I am accustomed to having. I had virtually no free time from the end of August 2017 to the first half of May 2019. My schedule definitely became more manageable once I returned to being unemployed. During the past year I felt like my life was full, but I no longer felt like I was drowning, which is how I had felt the previous 21 months. Homeschooling three kids, yardwork, laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning keep me busy. Since we are having a break from homeschooling right now, are home almost all the time, and the kids are more independent, I have more free time now than I have had in at least twelve years. In the beginning I was using a large portion of my free time to work on lesson planning for the next school year. That Word document is currently 50 pages (single spaced) thus far. Our school year ended in the middle of April. Since that time I've spent more time taking walks (2-6 miles a day whenever the weather permits), playing board games with the kids, decluttering around the house, doing jigsaw puzzles with the kids, watching a few movies, and reading more books. Yesterday I decided to use some money I received for my birthday to resume a membership in a photography class, and I also decided to pay $25 to register for online access to a homeschool conference. I've been homeschooling for seven years, but I only attended two homeschool conferences in that time span. I had considered attending a Great Homeschool Convention in the past, but I had never done so. Since it only cost $25, and I could listen at home any time between now and the end of 2020, I decided to give it a whirl. So today I made a to do list for myself that I hope to accomplish over the next three months. I didn't include the things I'm already doing, like taking walks, on my list but just some additional things I hope to accomplish. 

Usually my to do list in the summer is almost 100% comprised of projects around the house. I might add more things this summer, but my first list has 50 things on it, and only three are house projects. I typically read more fiction than non fiction. I assume I'll continue to read some fiction, but I only put a few non fiction titles on my list. I already finished Introverted Mom: Your Guide to More Calm, Less Guilt, and Quiet Joy by Jamie Martin. Amazon has been giving months of free access to Kindle Unlimited, and so I read that book for free. Similarly, I am almost done with Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson, which was a book I highly recommend. Chapters 5 and 6 really inspired me the most to try to make some changes in how I interact with my children. The next two non fiction books that I want to read are Get out of your head by Jennie Allen and Everybody, Always by Bob Goff. The latter I am getting at the library. I used part of an Amazon gift card to buy the book by Jennie Allen. Somewhere near the beginning of the pandemic Lifeway offered free access to many Bible study videos. I had chosen three to do but hadn't finished any of them. The free access will be ending in sixteen days so I decided to make that a priority. I listened to two of them today, and I have sixteen left to finish by June 18. Aside from reading a few non-fiction books, watching Bible study videos, and three house projects, I also plan to finish my lesson planning, buy Oliver's birthday gifts (whatever is needed for a hermit crab), complete about 20 courses in the photography curriculum, and listen to approximately 15 sessions through the online homeschool convention. I haven't made a bucket list for the summer yet, but I'm actually contemplating making one even with though life is very unpredictable this year due to the coronavirus. Many things will NOT be on the list that typically are such as fireworks, parades, National Night Out, VBS, etc., but we should still be able to come up with ideas of things we can do even with COVID-19 such as picking blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries at a local farm. Another thing I didn’t put on my list but hope to do more over the summer is play more piano duets with Ian. I used part of an Amazon gift card to buy two more books of piano duets, and they are supposed to be delivered to our house tomorrow! I’m excited about playing the songs with my son!

 

Baby Steps

Life is definitely not anywhere close to what it was just three months ago, but we are definitely closer to normal compared to what life was like two months ago. More businesses were allowed to reopen in the yellow phase than were allowed to be open in the red phase. The places where I typically shop are grocery stores, CVS, and an occasional trip to a hardware store. Since all of those were deemed "essential," I haven't shopped at any of the other stores that were allowed to reopen on May 8. Most of the places that I've been waiting for them to allow to reopen are ones that can't do so until the green phase. Here are some changes that to me represent baby steps back to normalcy:

1. The neighborhood kids are playing together outside, without wearing masks, without staying 6 feet apart, and without worrying if they have some physical contact. For about six weeks the neighborhood kids didn't play together at all. Then they started interacting but still kept more physical distance than usual. Now when they play together it looks totally normal. Up until yesterday none of them had entered our house and my kids hadn't entered anyone else's house (since all this started), but yesterday Karyss had permission from her mom to play with Oliver inside our house, and today Oliver was invited into her house! Another baby step! Oliver has always been one to spend many hours playing with the neighbors. Ian was the first to start joining him more often, and now just in the last several days Nadia has been doing the same. There are three boys in our development who also just finished sixth grade (Damien, Maddox, and Trent). She's played with them. Damien in particular has really been enjoying interacting with Peppa (Nadia's younger guinea pig). The kids that play with my three the most often are Westyn, Addi, Karyss, Damien, Maddox, Trent, and Camden who are all between the ages of 7-12. Addi is turning ten on Wednesday. My kids each gave her a Mylar balloon and a birthday card today to help make her coronavirus birthday special since she can't do what she wanted to do on her birthday (spend some time at a skate park with her family and one friend). 

2. We can get curbside service from the library. Our "usual" library reopened for service today. It involved plenty of "hiccups." It took them multiple hours to get the "hold" system working again on their website today. I called and placed my holds over the phone after many failed attempts to do so online over the course of several hours. They had some of what I asked for ready when we showed up around 3:15pm. Grandma had given me $20 in my Mother's Day card and said it was to buy the kids and I a treat the first time we could return to the library. I let the kids pick where we spent the $20, and they picked Sweet Frog. They stayed in the van for the other errands, but donned their masks to go into Sweet Frog. Oliver lost his Paw Patrol mask before he ever actually wore it in public. He wore the one I bought for Nadia, and Nadia wore one of Paul's masks. Paul owns several since he wears them every day at work. In the "normal" days you would fill your container with frozen yogurt yourself and put your toppings on yourself. Now you tell the employee what kind of yogurt you want and what toppings you want. The price used to be based on weight. Now it's a flat price. I got them each a small, which cost $5 each and included 4 toppings. I opted to get myself a cup of soft ice cream at another little ice cream stand on the way home because it was cheaper and I didn't want the extra calories of the toppings. It was the first time in 2020 that any of us had soft ice cream or frozen yogurt. I savored every bit. Thank you, Grandma! When I got home I discovered that while we were putting away the groceries they had pulled 3 more books plus 1 more DVD that I had requested this morning off the shelves for me. Those four items were listed in my account as being checked out, but the six books I brought home were still listed as being ready to be picked up. What?!? I called and they said once they pull a book it's now going to be immediately checked out. They've never done it that way in the past, and our local library isn't doing it that way now so I wasn't expecting that. I'll keep that in mind in the future in terms of timing my requests more carefully. As for the books I brought home, that was their mistake and they corrected it in the system to show that I already checked those out. I usually only go to the library once per week, but I'm going to need to return sometime this week or the DVD they "checked out" to me today that is in the lobby will be due before we even get it. Now that understand the new system, I will plan accordingly. Ian was happy to get two more Paddington Bear books today. 

3. Nadia has had three different friends over for sleepovers the past three Friday nights. The next one is scheduled to take place towards the end of this month in honor of her birthday.

4. Nadia is looking forward to attending a youth group meeting in person on June 7 for the first time since March 15, and our whole family is looking forward to attending an in-person worship service on June 14 for the first time since March 8. Granted we will have to wear masks, we won't be going to our church (because our church isn't offering in person services yet), and there won't be any Sunday School classes, but still meeting in a church building instead of watching our TV at home. Paul put in a full day of work yesterday at the plant, but the kids and I watched one sermon plus the sixth episode of The Chosen. It was definitely my favorite episode thus far. We only have two more to watch. I hope they continue to make more seasons in the future. If you  haven't watched it before, you can watch it for free on YouTube. Each episode is about 50 minutes long. I'm very grateful that we only have ONE ore Sunday of church at home. I can't wait to take that baby step towards a more normal Sunday albeit I'm dreading wearing a mask for that length of time. 

5. In general ordering groceries online seems to be going more smoothly. The one thing I'm still really struggling to purchase anywhere is a box of jumbo shells or manicotti. I have the ricotta cheese, but I need some pasta to put that cheese into. Weis let me add it to my order (which wasn't the case at Walmart), but when I actually showed up to get my groceries today, nope no jumbo shells. I never dreamt trying to buy pasta would be challenging for weeks on end. The price of ground beef is also no where close to normal. Between now and Nadia's birthday I'm going to have to buy some because she wants rigatoni and meatballs for her birthday. The only meat we've been eating lately has been either chicken or tuna.

6. Reptiland's address is in Allenwood, PA, ,and Allenwood is in Union County. BUT it seems Reptiland is considered to be in Lycoming County because they said today that they are reopening on FRIDAY when Lycoming County enters the green phase! We haven't been on a field trip since March 8, and let me say we really miss our field trips! Reptiland is less than 10 minutes from our house. I think we'll be going there on Friday or Saturday! Going on a field trip (even if we have to wear a mask) is definitely going to feel like another step back toward normalcy. 

7. All the camps I signed the kids up for this summer were cancelled, BUT there will be camps in PA this summer! Last Monday the woman who runs the horseback riding camp texted me to see if we were interested in a week of camp. She raised the price from $200 per child to $250 per child. I realize that's still a very good price for 30 hours of horseback riding camp, but that would mean I'd have to pay $750 for three kids for one week. I paid $600 last year, but that was when both of us were employed. If that had been the only camp the kids could have gone to this summer, I probably would have signed them up for it, especially since Tab was willing to sign her boys up and we could have carpooled like we did last year. Since Nadia found an overnight camp the kids can attend for free this summer, I'm not planning on sending them to horseback riding camp this month. I also found two theater camps today that haven't cancelled yet. Nadia has participated in camps at the one in Williamsport before. They had multiple options. I didn't pick that one for three reasons #1 they said if they cancel you will have a credit (I want a refund), #2 it cost $75 more than the other one I found, and #3 of the five camps she could have picked between (based on the fact she'll be entering 7th grade this fall), two kids had signed up for one of the camps so far and no kids had signed up for the other four camps so far. It seems very likely they might cancel those camps due to low enrollment even if they are allowed to hold them in light of COVID-19 restrictions. The one I selected is about 20 minutes from our house. The two camps were pretty equidistant from our house albeit in opposite directions. There were only two options for her grade level. The production they will be doing is a mash up between Cinderella and Frankenstein, which certainly wouldn't be her first choice. But in 2020 with camps being cancelled left and right, beggars can't be choosers! This camp said they will give a full refund if they end up cancelling due to low enrollment or COVID-19 restrictions. They will make a decision by June 15. So I signed her up. Since VBS has been cancelled this summer as well as the camps they planned to attend, signing all three up for one week of overnight camp plus signing Nadia up for 2 weeks of an acting class (4 hours a day) seemed like baby steps toward normalcy - provided these camps do actually end up taking place that is!

Splish, splash!

Grace was at our house for almost 24 hours. We're going to take a little break from sleepovers for a few weeks and then have another one closer to Nadia's birthday, which is only 25 days from today. Nadia has typically stayed up until about 1:00 or 1:30 when she's had a friend over for a sleepover, but last night Grace and Nadia didn't go to bed until almost 3:00am! She definitely takes after her dad not me in that regard. Surprisingly the girls were up for breakfast before 8:00, which means they got less than 5 hours of sleep last night. Paul went to bed earlier than he normally does, but he also got up and left for work much earlier than he usually does. He left for work before the girls went to bed! That means Paul also got less than 5 hours of sleep last night. I got about eight hours of sleep, which is much more to my liking than only five. 

I had suggested to Nadia that she play with the neighbors more. There are eight other girls in our neighborhood ranging in age from a toddler to a girl that just finished eighth grade. The only one Nadia usually plays with is Addi who is two years (and three grades) younger than Nadia. She knows the two other middle school girls as she was in AWANA and a summer musical program with them for several years beginning in 2011. She took my advice and played with some of the boys (two of them also just finished sixth grade), and she was invited to swim in the neighbor's pool for the first time. I'm very, very thankful that we have a decent number of kids in our small development. Including Ian and Oliver there are eleven boys in our development. Oliver and Westyn will both turn eight in August, and they are the youngest boys. The two oldest boys just finished eighth grade. We're also very thankful that Camden's family had a heated pool installed last summer and that they are gracious enough to allow other children to join them in the pool. Life won't feel normal tomorrow because we can't go to church yet (but that is going to change in just two weeks!), but today it feels normal. Paul is at work, I mowed the lawn and did a load of laundry, and the kids are swimming and playing with friends. "Normal" feeling days are a blessing in this very abnormal time. Any time I enter a store I am keenly aware of many of the abnormalities, but today life feels normal, even if we are still in the yellow phase.

Not moving to green

Our county was in the first group of 24 that moved from the red to yellow phase on May 8. Last Friday I was hoping and praying that our county would be moved to the green phase, but our county and two contiguous counties were not included in the list of 18 counties that would move to the green phase on May 29. I am one who would rather have low expectations because I don't like getting my hopes up only to have them dashed. For example, a few weeks ago Paul finished installing the subfloor in our bathroom. A section of that subfloor had been missing for four years. Although it seemed to me that he must be getting closer to the end of the project, I told myself NOT to get my hopes up and reminded myself it still could be more than a year until I can use that shower again. I'd much rather be pleasantly surprised that disappointed. I should have told myself that last week about moving to the green phase. One county that is just a couple of miles from our home IS going green on June 5, but not our county or the other county we are very close to. Many of the 16 counties going green on June 5 are ones that moved into the yellow phase on May 15. I'm not sure why we were chosen to be one of the first 24 that moved to yellow on May 8 but not one of the first 34 counties moving to green. Union county (which is where our usual library is located) has only had 57 cases of COVID-19 and 1 death over the past 2 1/2 months. Why on earth haven't they been given permission to go to the green phase? Lycoming County is the one close to us that is going to the green phase on June 5, and they've had about the same number of cases as our county (162 vs. 186), and our county has had far fewer deaths than theirs (16 vs. 3). Our populations are pretty similar (113,664 vs. 91,767). The movie theatre, bowling alley, and roller skating rink we usually go to in the summer are all in the county that is going green on June 5, but I doubt we'll be visiting those venues until July at the earliest. I was hoping to visit Reptiland in the near future, but they are in the county that has only had 57 cases but hasn't been given the green light yet. It's disappointing for us, but I can only imagine how devastating it is for the local businesses such as hair salons that aren't allowed to open in the yellow phase. My heart goes out to all those small businesses!!! After being disappointed two Fridays in a row, I am trying not to expect we will be moved to the green phase on June 12.

During Thursday's press conference, the Governor was asked about the phase after the green phase because green definitely isn't normal. He said there isn't another phase. This is the new normal. What?!? There are so many businesses that would be permanently closed if the regulations in the green phase are maintained for years to come. In the green phase we can be in groups up to 250 provided that is at the most 50% of the capacity of the particular venue. It's 50% capacity or 250 people, whichever is smaller with people staying 6 feet apart, wearing masks, etc. That would seem to mean no amusement parks, no attending professional sporting events, no festivals, no parades, very few concerts, no Sight and Sound productions, etc. It would be one thing if he said not until 2021, but he made it sound permanent. He is allowing kids to use a playground while they are at a child care center, but public playgrounds are not allowed even in the green phase. If there truly isn't another phase after the green phase, then kids would never be on a playground again if they don't go to a child care center. This is insane in my opinion. He actually does have a list of changes he wants to implement after the green phase, but none of them have to do with easing any restrictions. They are all focused on other things such as raising the minimum wage and unemployment compensation. What that has to do with COVID-19 is beyond me. 

The good news is that my kids have been having a lot of fun playing with the kids in our neighborhood. Nadia has a friend over for another sleepover tonight, and she will be returning to an in-person youth group on June 7. That youth pastor is splitting the group in half to follow the 25 person limit guideline we are under in the yellow phase. She's very happy about this. Also, we will begin attending the church where she's attending youth group (not the one where I'm a member) on June 14 even though the county might still be in the yellow phase at that time and there will definitely be more than 25 people at the service. Does that constitute civil disobedience? After three months of church at home, I'm really looking forward to a service that doesn't involve watching a TV screen. Speaking of screens, Ian downloaded a free version of Fortnite onto his Switch yesterday, and this evening he played the game with a neighbor. Camden was in his house, and Ian was in our house, but they were playing the game together and able to talk to each other through a microphone. He thought that was awesome! 

Two more weeks

I found out on Sunday that a church about 30 minutes from us resumed having in-person services on May 17, which technically is in violation of the governor's edicts, but I have no problem with it. I know the pastor's family because they are also homeschoolers. If we were going to have to wait a lot longer to attend a church in person, I would haven been willing to drive 30 minutes to attend a worship service, but I found out today that the church where our kids play basketball is resuming their service on June 14. They were trying to reopen on June 7, but they've ordered some equipment to make it possible for them to also stream the service to those who choose not to attend in person. They need a bit more time for the equipment to arrive and be installed. I've noticed a common pattern of the churches that are beginning to reopen - using every other pew, families sit together, no nurseries or any type of programming for children, no passing an offering plate or a communion plate, no hugs/hand shaking, no church bulletins, etc. Some churches are requiring everyone to wear masks, and some aren't. Our church posted a video today saying that they will be rather slow in reopening given the size of the church. The maximum number that can be gathered together in the green phase is 250. Our county hasn't entered the green phase yet, but I believe we will in the near future, possibly as early as June 5. Our pastor said that as they move forward the first step will be to have small group "watch parties" who are watching the service together on a screen. That doesn't interest our family. Our plan is to attend FBC from June 14 until whenever our church returns to something a lot closer to normal than a "watch party." March 8 was the last time we attended church in person so it will have been a little more than 3 months on June 14. FBC is requiring everyone to wear a mask. Paul wears a mask for many hours a day, but wearing it for a church service will definitely be the longest the kids or I have worn a mask yet.

Today we learned that Camp Good News cancelled their day and overnight camps. Nadia really wanted to attend a summer camp somewhere this summer so I said she could search online for Christian summer camps to see if she could find any that were still operating. The Governor has not prohibited overnight or day camps in the green phase provided they follow a wide array of new rules. She found a camp in the Poconos. Camp Susque, where the kids usually attend, is 40 minutes from our house. The camp she found is 90 minutes from our house, but they are planning to still offer summer camp this year. As an added bonus, they allow first time campers to come for free! Wow! I've never heard of a free overnight camp before. They require that you pay a $50 deposit per child. If your child actually shows up for camp, you receive a refund of the $50 deposit. They offer camps for ages 8-10, 11-13, and 14-17. I signed the boys up for a week the end of July, and I signed Nadia up for June 28-July 4. Camp Susque goes from a Saturday afternoon to a Saturday morning. This camp is one day shorter (Sunday afternoon through Saturday morning). Hopefully the kids will have a blast! I'm willing to do some extra driving if it means #1 the kids CAN actually attend camp even with COVID-19 and #2 we save a little more than $1,000 (what we would have paid if our original plans hadn't been cancelled). Our town this week decided to cancel the Fourth of July parade, fireworks, etc. I was beginning to think everything in July would be cancelled as was the case for the second half of March and all of April, May, and June. It felt so nice to add "attend church" to our calendar starting on June 14 and to add a week of camp for each of the kids as well this summer. I talked to my Aunt on Monday, and she feels hopeful we will be able to visit her sometime this summer. I said it doesn't matter if the restaurants, museums, zoos, aquariums, etc. are still closed. If  one or both swimming pools in her development are open and we can swim at the beach where she has a cabana, that's all we need. 

I received emails that our iPad couldn't be backed up because the iCloud was full. I didn't want to pay a monthly fee to increase how much we could store. So I tackled the unpleasant task of sorting through the photos and videos on my brother's iPad. There were more than 500 pictures and videos. One photo might be of what he was going to eat for dinner, another showing how many calories were in a particular dish at a restaurant, another of books on a library shelf, etc. I don't cry regularly any more over the loss of my brother or mother, but I did shed tears during this task. Nadia helped me some as it wasn't as challenging for her emotionally. I have taken far fewer pictures than normal over the past 2+ months, but I did use my camera multiple times a day today. I decided today to make it a goal to take at least one picture a day. 

74 games!

On March 19 I started keeping track of the games we played with a goal of playing each game at least one time. Yesterday we played the last two games - the Whole Brain Game and Monopoly. We started 76 games, but we didn't finish two of them. The Trivial Pursuit game from the 90's was too dated and difficult for our kids. I donated that to Goodwill. The Bamboozle word game from the 90's was really a pitiful game in my opinion. I didn't even think it was worthy of donating to Goodwill. I put it in the garbage. I can't believe I hung on to that game for more than 30 years! Our monopoly game is in progress. Once we finish that game, we will have played seventy-four different games from March 19 to May 25! Some games were played multiple times over the past two months. Last Friday and Saturday Evanna and Nadia played a wide assortment of games that we had previously "scratched off" the list including Racko, Suspend, Jenga, Pente, Mancala, Jacks, Twister, Pick-up Sticks, and Bubble Talk. We also played Cranium for the first time while she was here. Part of the reason I made the list was because I knew the kids had never played some of the games and wanted them to play a wider variety of games as I figured they would find a few that they really enjoyed. Pente was one of the games Nadia and Ian played for the first time this month, and obviously she liked it because she chose to play it with Evanna. Pit is another game that the kids learned how to play during the quarantine that is now one of their favorites. Paul has many games that haven't been played for decades. The only one of his I put on our list was Pente. The list *could* have been quite a bit longer! As long as our calendar continues to remain empty I imagine we'll continue playing games more often than we usually do, but I'm done with keeping a list. 

The library we usually use is opening for curbside service next week. I am not sure why that county isn't allowed to move to the green phase this Friday as they've only had 56 total positive cases over the past 2+ months, but I expect they will be moving to green in early June. Reptiland is in that county so I expect that will likely be our first field trip. I placed a grocery order with Walmart this morning that I plan to pick up next Monday afternoon in conjunction with our first trip to our usual library since the middle of March. We have to wait until June 1 to put items on hold. This week we'll keep using our tiny local library. Having a few of the kids' friends over and curbside service at the libraries are two tiny baby steps back to normalcy. Now to find out this week what else will be permitted in the green phase. Church? Playground equipment? Amusement parks? We should find out over the next couple of days.

School Breakfast

Sometime last year I discovered that Paul didn't know that public schools serve breakfast. He was stunned. It cracked me up because this program has been around for a few decades. Since we homeschool our kids, I never anticipated they would ever eat a school breakfast. Several weeks ago during the lockdown I had seen that the school was providing meals to take home for kids twice a week, but I assumed those were just for the kids enrolled in the school district. One of our neighbors sends their kids to the Christian school at our church, and she mentioned to me last Wednesday that they have been picking up the free meals. I admit that I wrestled with my decision a little bit because part of me doesn't want to take any handouts from the government. I don't think so many people should have received a stimulus check. Some people haven't lost their jobs or had their income reduced at all and others (like me) are already accustomed to not receiving any income. Just giving it to almost everyone doesn't make any sense to me considering our government already has an astronomically huge amount of debt, but we accepted our check as refusing our one check isn't going to change things. I had the same internal struggle over accepting free meals, but then I reminded myself that we do pay the school district thousands of dollars every year via property taxes, and we don't use any of their services. We pay for our children's textbooks, classes, and such ourselves. 

When I saw they were advertising a "hot dog cookout and ice cream" for Memorial Day, I decided to try it out. Now before you think we attended a picnic or something, what it entailed was that we drove up to the side of the school building, rolled down the window on the passenger front door, and food was deposited on that empty seat. I sincerely hope this will not continue to be the "new normal" for picnics! The principal who was passing out the food was a former student of mine so I didn't need to tell her how many kids I had as we've been friends for about 16 years. She did ask me if I was going to send the kids to the school. Um no. We love homeschooling, and frankly if schools actually implement the CDC guidelines, I think many others will choose homeschooling as what they are describing sounds perfectly awful for kids (no recess, no specials, stay in one room the whole day with one teacher including for lunch, desks 6 feet apart, etc.). We were given three hotdogs in a Styrofoam container, three ice cream treats, and several bags filled with a variety of things such as orange juice, chocolate milk, white milk, Goldfish crackers, apple slices, broccoli, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chicken nuggets, cereal, etc. On Mondays they give you food for two breakfasts and two lunches. On Wednesday they give you food for three breakfast and three lunches plus a box of food for the family. There are ten more dates when they will be distributing meals, and I assume we'll show up all ten times. The kids were thrilled with some of the things in their bags as I don't often buy chocolate milk or Goldfish crackers for example. The school is only about one mile from our house so it was a very quick errand. I actually entered into the calendar because well the calendar from the middle of March through early July is almost completely empty. If the Good News Club cancels their camps then our calendar will be empty through the end of July. 

I took one photo of my three wearing their patriotic shirts today. I saw Camden and Karyss (two other kids in the neighborhood) also sporting patriotic outfits today.  Camden also had a flag attached to his bicycle as he was riding around the development today. We've never done anything to celebrate Memorial Day aside from wearing red, white and blue, so this holiday isn't different for our family because of COVID-19. Memorial Day isn't a holiday for Paul; he's at work. The kids have been playing outside. We're thankful for the nicer weather. A lockdown during the winter would be much harder considering we'd rarely leave our home. At least we are able to spend time outside in our neighborhood!

Giving Thanks

1. For the men and women who have given their lives serving in our military over the past 244 years

2. Nadia has had at least one friend over for a sleepover the past two Friday nights and is planning to have another friend come over this Friday for her third sleepover this month. This was something that was forbidden in the red phase. We're thankful we've been in the yellow phase for a little over two weeks.

3. Tab, Micah, and Isaiah came over to our house for a few hours last Tuesday afternoon.

4. We were able to take advantage of the curbside service at our tiny local library as it reopened four days ago after being closed for more than two months. I'm hoping the bigger library we usually use will reopen in the near future.

5. Paul's mom was discharged from the hospital on Friday. We are continuing to pray for Paul's nephew who is still hospitalized due to infection from having his appendix removed three weeks ago.

6. The kids have been playing with other kids in the neighborhood every day that the weather permits. Oliver and Ian have gone swimming in the neighbor's heated swimming pool multiple times recently. The boys have also been enjoying a dirt bike road that has recently been developed in our neighborhood.

7. We have enjoyed watching five episodes of The Chosen so far on YouTube. We have three left to watch. I hope they are able to make season two!

8. The kids have made progress with their jigsaw puzzle skills lately. Oliver can do about 150 pieces on his own, Ian has been doing 300 piece puzzles on his own, and Nadia has been doing 500 piece puzzles on her own. I started a 750 piece puzzle today that I'm hoping either Nadia or Ian will finish tomorrow.

9. We've been spending quite a few hours listening to audio books. Last week we listened to two books by Katherine Applegate and three by Jennifer Bertman. Today we started one in the Mysterious Benedict Society series. The books we listened to last week were each around 5-6 hours long, but the ones in this series are each 11-14 hours long, which means we won't finish five audiobooks this week!

10. I went to CVS today and bought six 2 liters of Pepsi for Paul, eight boxes of cereal for the kids, and two candy bars for Paul, and I paid less than $2 total for those sixteen items! Even though it means wearing the mask, I'm grateful to be grocery shopping again after not doing so for about six weeks. 

11. Although the lockdowns have been devastating to our economy and created economic hardships for many individuals and many businesses, we haven't suffered in any way financially as a result of the government's response to COVID-19. In fact, quite the opposite has happened due to the stimulus check we received from the government (evidently they believe money grows on trees), a small rebate from our car insurance company, refunds for activities I had signed the kids up to do this summer that have been cancelled, and the fact that I have now gone more than two months without buying any gasoline for the minivan. If Paul hadn't used 1/4 of a tank when he drove the van to work one day last month (because he thought he'd be buying a freezer but that proved impossible), I could have gone several more weeks without buying gas. The price of some food items has gone up, but the price of gasoline has dropped significantly. Although I've missed attending church, going on field trips, etc. I have to say I have enjoyed driving far, far less than normal.

12. Seventeen counties are moving to the green phase this Friday. I had said that only one county in our area was going to green, but that was incorrect. Another county a little farther away that we sometimes spend time in is going green, but I don't think we'll be headed to that county this summer. Right now I have hope that our county will enter the green phase in June, possibly as early as June 5. I hope that most counties move to green by the end of June so that we can visit some national parks, museums, Reptiland, etc. Movie theatres and bowling alleys and such will be permissible in green as long as they don't allow the capacity to exceed 50%. I'm hoping that we will also be able to return to church, use playgrounds, and visit Knoebels in the green phase. Hoping to learn more about that this week.